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Comment by r1b | Hacker News Reader

I still don't understand why this is such a big deal - here's what it reads on my `about:studies` page:

looking-glass-2 Active • MY REALITY IS JUST DIFFERENT THAN YOURS.

Looking Glass is a collaboration between Mozilla and the makers of Mr. Robot to provide a shared world experience. Are you a fan of Mr. Robot? If so, join the hunt for answers!

Participating in this shared world experience requires explicit user opt in. If you are not actively participating in the ARG no modifications will be made to firefox.

https://support.mozilla.org/kb/lookingglass

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Here's more about shield studies: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/shield

It also lists some previous studies that ran on my browser. I have never noticed any of these.

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On the "About SHIELD Studies" page it says:

"SHIELD studies let you try out different features and ideas before they are released to all Firefox users. Using your feedback, we can make more informed decisions based on what you actually need."

This wasn't a feature and it wasn't an idea to be released to all Firefox users.

It was an ad placement for the Mr. Robot show; that seems to be the crux of the issue.

They abused a channel meant to improve Firefox and test new features and in doing so violated the trust of the users.

I didn't have this installed because I disable all telemetry however it doesn't take away from the bad taste of Mozilla's actions.

a) It was rolled out appearing as a normal plugin, out of the blue, without the additional context information, so many people assumed it's malware. Don't make your users panic for no good reason.

b) It's using a mechanism intended for helping improve the browser to roll out advertisements. Even those that were aware of the studies did consent to Mozilla pushing out changes to help them study improvements, they did not consent to Mozilla using this permission to roll out ads.

c) For many users, this is the first time they realize Firefox has these things turned on by default, instead of them being opt-in. Opt-in for unnecessary data collection is privacy design 101, privacy being a large part of Mozilla's advertising. (The ad in specific does not collect data, but the mechanisms it directed attention to do)

d) Mozilla running advertisements for a Comcast-owned product is somewhat at odds with #NetNeutrality messages.

Note that the details you're seeing which explain what it is were added after the fuss got kicked up. All you could see yesterday was

"Looking Glass: MY REALITY IS JUST DIFFERENT THAN YOURS."

Can you see why that would be concerning?

On my `about:addons` page under `Extensions` I see an entry for `Looking Glass`. It has no icon. If you click it, it expands to read:

Looking Glass

By PUG Experience Group (list of names) <a contact email>

MY REALITY IS JUST DIFFERENT THAN YOURS.

Looking Glass is a collaboration between Mozilla and the makers of Mr. Robot to provide a shared world experience. Are you a fan of Mr. Robot? If so, join the hunt for answers!

Participating in this shared world experience requires explicit user opt in. If you are not actively participating in the ARG (Augmented Reality Game) no modifications will be made to Firefox.

https://support.mozilla.org/kb/lookingglass

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I do think they should have added an icon and NOT used the extensions as a delivery channel but I also don't think it screams malware. There is a contact email and a link to a page explaining the extension.

As I said, they added the additional information after people started complaining. It only said "Looking Glas - MY REALITY IS JUST DIFFERENT THAN YOURS" as the description, no clear reference to the show, no link to additional info, ...

Me neither. It could have been communicated / written better, but it does not equate them to Nazi Germany like some people paints them because if this.

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